Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1887-02-17
Goldfish Statesmanship.

CO0nSn SCaCeSmanSnIp.
From the chicago Times.
Though the fish dispute has been
pending ever since the Cleveland gov
ernment came, not one citizen in ten
thousand has any clear notion of what
it Is about. Not one in ten thousand
has realized the slightest interest in the
subject-matter. Public ignorance has
gone hand in hand with public indiff-
erence in relation to controversy that
has not concerned the bulk of the
American people.
The fish dispute is over petty and
somewhat contemplate question of
mere local interest. 1t is limited to the
extreme Northeastern frontier; to a
small district around the original Yam
kee blarney-stone; to numerically in
significant fish h-mongers' ring. AS we
have shown in q previous paper, the
whole number ofYankees occupied in
the fish industry is only some 81 900,
and probably not more than half of
them are occupied in the "deep-sea
fishing" off the coast of Canada. The
whole amount of capital embarked in
that industry is only 500, 100000, and
probably good deal less than half of it
is employed in the Canadian fisheries.
The total annual product of that indus
try is but little more than $4,000, ,000
If one-half of this amount is produced
by Yankee fishermen from the waters
of Canada, then something over 81 ,000,-
600 is the pretty annual product that
indicate the contemplate magnitude of
the local fish industry, on account of
which nation of sixty millions is
threatened with the destruction of a
foreign trade worth $75,000,000 a year,
and possible, if not probable war is
the sequel that would cost the nation
millions beyond estimation.
| All this enormous cost to the country,
this destruction of a no inconsiderable
part of its authenticated foreign COM
merce, this menace of q desolating and
ruinous foreign war, is the price which
a contemplate little Yankee fishing in
terest demands that the nation shall
pay for what? For an assert
ed privilege of that petty fishing inter-
est to use the ports and railways of
Canada for the more convenient and
rapid shipment of fish taken in Cana
dian waters to the markets of this coln-
try.
The ocean is, of course, a common
highway by which the Yankee fisher
men off the coasts of Canada are always
at liberty to transport their fish to the
ports of Maine or Massachusetts,, for re-
shipment by rail to the great fish mar
cts. But, to move cargo of fish from
the waters of Canada to port in Maine,
discharge it there, and return to the
fishing-banks would consume more
time than to discharge the same cargo
in the more convenient ports of Nova
Scotia or New Brunswick, and forward
it in bond by Canadian railways. Be
sides the saving of time, the latter
course would give the Yankee fisher
men a very great advantage over the
Canadian fishermen in their own wa
ters; for the fish of the latter could cross
the boundary only upon paying the tar
iff taxes, whereas the Yankee fish, ship
ped from the same point and by the
same conveyance, would pass free.
The privilege of entering Canadian
ports and sending their fish home by
Canadian railways is the claim of the
Yankee fishermen who go to fish in
Canadian waters, and the denial
of this claim by the Canadian
government is the grievance of which
thoy, ,i, thn n,unt " WI oe ~; VIII Will
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